Saturday, September 5, 2015

Number 10
Downing Street has never been busier than it is today. It is an office for the
Prime Minister, a meeting place for the Cabinet, a venue for state events and a
home for the Prime Minister's family.

The United
Kingdom general election of 2015 was held on 7th May 2015 to elect the 56th Parliament of the
United Kingdom. Voting took place in all 650 parliamentary constituencies of
the United Kingdom, each electing one Member of Parliament to the House of
Commons, the dominant house of Parliament. Despite most opinion polls predicting the
Conservatives and Labour neck and neck, the Conservatives secured a clear lead
over their rivals and took a working majority of 12 (in practice increased to
15 due to Sinn Féin's 4 MPs' abstention). Conservative party leader and
incumbent Prime Minister David Cameron subsequently formed a majority
single-party government, while their former Liberal Democrat coalition partners
suffered their worst defeat since the 1970 general election.

Samantha
Cameron caused a stir when she cruised into the back of Number 10 on a trendy
£160 white micro scooter. As the Prime
Minister was busy organising his cabinet reshuffle inside Downing Street, media
reported of Samantha Cameron following her husband's example of making a swift
return to Downing Street - on her very own micro-scooter, to the surprise of heavily armed policeman.

As
we know - 7, Race Course Road
(Panchavati / 7, RCR) is the official
residence and principal workplace of the Prime Minister of India, where he
lives and holds most of his official or political meetings. It is spread over 12 acres, comprising five
bungalows in Lutyens' Delhi, built in the 1980s, which are PM
office-cum-residence zone and security establishment, including one occupied by
Special Protection Group(SPG) and another being a guest house, though all are
collectively called 7, Race Course Road.
Mr. Rajiv Gandhi was the first PM to stay at 7 Race Course Road in 1984. The PMO is located in the South Block of
Secretariat Building, on Raisina Hill.

10 Downing
Street - is the headquarters of the Executive Arm of the British Government and
the official residence and office of the First Lord of the Treasury, a post
which, for much of the 18th and 19th centuries and ever since 1905, is also
held by the Prime Minister.

Situated in
Downing Street in the City of Westminster, London, Number 10 is over three
hundred years old and contains approximately one hundred rooms. There is a
private residence on the third floor and a kitchen in the basement. Adjacent to St. James's Park, Number 10 is
near to Buckingham Palace, the official London residence of the British
monarch, and the Palace of Westminster, the meeting place of both houses of
parliament.

Originally
three houses, Number 10 was offered to Sir Robert Walpole by George II in 1732.
The arrangement was not an immediate
success. Despite its size and convenient location near to Parliament, few early
Prime Ministers lived there. Costly to maintain, neglected, and run-down,
Number 10 was close to being razed several times. Nevertheless, the property
survived and became linked with many statesmen and events in British history.
In 1985 Margaret Thatcher said Number 10 had become "one of the most precious
jewels in the national heritage."

The area
around Downing Street was home to ancient Roman, Anglo-Saxon and Norman
settlements, and was already a prestigious centre of government 1000 years ago.
However, the name is related to - Sir
George Downing, a property developer -
who saw building houses on prime London land as a means to get rich quick. Downing
was one of the earliest graduates of Harvard University. He came back to
England during the Civil War, and by 1650 he was Cromwell's Scoutmaster General
or intelligence chief. In 1654 Downing
acquired the Crown interest in the land, but he could not take possession as it
was under lease to Knyvet's descendents. It was not until 1682, nearly 30 years
later, that Downing finally secured the leases to the property.

He quickly
set about the project, pulling down existing properties. In their place sprang
up a cul-de-sac of 15 or 20 terraced houses along the northern side of Downing
Street.

Designed for
a quick turnover, Downing's houses were cheaply built, with poor foundations for
the boggy ground. Instead of neat brick façades, they had mortar lines drawn on
to look like even-spaced bricks. In the 1730s Number 10 began to be linked to
the office of prime minister. When Benjamin Disraeli went to live at Number 10
in 1877, the house was in poor shape. The living quarters had not been used for
30 years. Disraeli persuaded the state to pay for renovation to the entrance
halls and public rooms, though he paid himself for the private rooms to be
refurbished. When Gladstone moved into the
house for the first time in 1880, he insisted on redecorating after Disraeli's
occupancy, spending £1,555.5s.0d., an enormous sum for the time, on furniture.

There is
some more history that the earliest building known to have stood on the site of
Downing Street was the Axe brewery owned by the Abbey of Abingdon in the Middle
Ages. By the early 1500s, it had fallen into disuse.

With regards
– S. Sampathkumar.

26th
Aug 2015.

Collated from
various sources including Wikipedia & www.number-10.gov.uk